Silicon Valley Meets Russia 2014

On October 10th, the Digital October Center played host to the second annual international Silicon Valley Meets Russia Conference, which is dedicated to issues related to venture capitalism, the founding and development of high tech companies, and investment strategies. Victor Orlovsky, Senior Vice President for the Development of Digital Business at Sberbank, discussed this last topic in an interview:

“We invest very carefully. In fact, we have currently spent less than 25% of the assets that have been earmarked for venture capital projects. As I said, we took a detailed look at around 400 projects and invested in fewer than 10 projects, and a few others are in the works, so we’re not in a position to announce them. Each project is on the small side, so our investment in each of them ranges from several hundred thousand to several million dollars. We haven’t made a single investment of more than ten million dollars…”

Sberbank Russia was the conference’s general partner, while Silicon Valley Bank acted as partner. As with last year, Silicon Valley Meets Russia featured a startup competition, during which representatives of previously selected projects had the opportunity to deliver 5-minute product presentations. The competition was won by Box2Box, an innovative logistical network with big plans for development. After winning over conference participants with their presentation, representatives of this startup received the grand prize: a trip to Silicon Valley sponsored by Sberbank with a reception furnished by Silicon Valley Bank. They also received the Audience Favorite Prize.